Baby brother and I visited Mom, as usual, in the evening. We had been talking about our ancestry when the conversation turned, as it often does, to words – both their spelling and derivation. I smiled and enjoyed the discussion,  a typical conversation when you grow up with two English majors for parents. The folks were not strict – compared to other parents – unless we improperly conjugated a verb or participated in a gross misspelling. Mom was/is like a giant grammar magnet glomming onto dangling participles and misspelled words just like my magnetic pincushion snaps up wayward pins. One of my biggest faux pas growing up was spelling tomorrow with an a, as in tomarrow. I also misspelled protein by reversing the e and the i, as in protien. When mom pointed this out, I countered with, the jingle ” i before e”. I could never win, though. Mom pointed out the exceptions and insisted on protein vs. protien. Being a rebellious type, I never conformed completely to the household spelling standard until spell check arrived in the computer age. A middle brother still misspells.

So, anyway, here is an excerpt from our conversation the other night:

Baby Brother: After my trip to Ireland, I love all things Irish, I am a Hibernophile.

Me: Is there are a word for that, like Francophile?

BB: Hibernophile.

Me: duh.

BB: duh.

Me (trying to recover my swerve): is the root of Hibernophile the same as the root of hibernate?

BB: no way.

Mom (who we thought was asleep in her wheelchair): A person who loves Scotland is a Caledonophile.

Me: Oh, because the former name for Scotland is Caledonia?,  I say proudly

Mom: Yep. And, a Camprophile is a person who loves Wales (back to sleep after that)

BB who has been searching on his I-phone: Jane, you are right. Hibernia, the Latin name for Ireland means “land of winter”, the same derivation as hibernate.

Me: Ah-ha! Right again

Me: A few days ago at an ancestry site, I followed the “Willis” side to Cavan, Ireland! Imagine that. All the racist Orange men from Grandpa’s generation were probably from Catholic Ireland.

Mom: Oh no, I doubt it. They were Protestant on all sides, even the Willis’. They hated the Catholic Irish.

BB: Yeah? I just had my DNA “done” and I have a relative from Africa even though my hair was blond before turning gray and falling out.

Me: A lot of nookie got done and genes got mixed-up, just like now.

Mom, correcting me: …..genes intermingled, Jane.

BB: yeah, that’s right, little Janie foo-foo.

Mom correcting BB: ….that’s “correct”, Mike.

Me, sticking out my tongue at BB

Seriously, this is a normal conversation between mom and her offspring. Always has been, always will be, although, it gets funnier as we all get older and our minds rebel against such precision. Can you guess Mom’s favorite game? Scrabble, of course.

You had to be there!

Magnet